ONE MAN'S TRASH . . .

My mother used to say that she and my dad had more fun doing something casual like making a trip to the dump together than any other sort of “date.” I thought of that today when Mike invited me to accompany him to the landfill in the old beater truck.

The old beater truck – a 1972 Dodge Ram – has deteriorated to the point of being marginally safe. A couple of years ago when Hallie was trying to arrange transportation to a rafting event, I heard her ask Mike if the old truck was safe to drive. “Barely,” was his response. Hmmmm. If you don’t think your daughter ought to drive it, then maybe you shouldn’t either.

But we use it so seldom. We use it to haul the occasional large item to the farm. We throw our town yard waste into it and when it’s full we make a trip to the landfill. Sometimes a friend borrows it for the same purpose. And we use it to get wood. So today, we had to empty it of yard waste so that tomorrow Mike and Ken can get wood. I’m not quite sure why I was invited along. Moral support? To pay the fee? Just for the fun of it?

 

Anyway, there I was at the landfill watching Mike rake the debris out of the pick-up bed, and there on the ground, lying in the dirt, was a Simplicity dress pattern. One of my favorite online searches is for vintage patterns – some old and some not so old -- so I didn’t know anyone still threw them away. I thought to myself that where there’s one, there’s apt to be more. I remember how my mother threw away her used patterns -- not one at a time but in bulk when the pattern drawer was full, so I would expect a sewist to throw away more than one pattern. Indeed, I did find one more in the dirt and a copy of Victorian magazine. I picked these things up from the approach – not by scavenging through the trash. Still – I could hear Chris asking in her teacher voice, “Where are your gloves?”

I had to ask myself what I thought I was doing. These patterns were published in ’96 and ’97. Would I have bought them then? Would I buy them today? Probably not. Can I afford brand new patterns at Jo-Ann Fabrics? Absolutely. But that doesn’t matter. I consider myself a collector and it seemed like a windfall. I came home with those patterns.

I just knew that somewhere in the mound before me could likely be found a treasure trove of used patterns just ripe for the taking. But – the landfill does have a rule against scavenging, and I also have my pride -- don’t I?

The envelopes were rather dirty, so I photocopied them, threw the originals away, and placed the contents in plastic bags for storage. ZipLoc bags work well. Despite a torn and dirty exterior, I discovered the Simplicity pattern was unused – still in factory folds.

As the old saying goes: “One man’s trash is another man’s treasure.”  KW